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quently passed to the present own
ers.) This bill was referred to the
Committee on Public Lands with the
Sparks report and favorably recom
mended from the Secretary of the In
terior, but it died in a pigeonhole.
On page 26 o'f Prof. Gustavus My
ers' "History of the Great American
Fortunes," appears the following:
"In his annual report for 1885,
Commissioner Sparks of the United
States General Land Office told
(House Executive Documents, 1885
86, Vol. II) how, by 1885, thePortage
Lake 'canal wafe only a worthless
ditch and a complete fraud. What
had the company done with its large
land grant? Instead of accepting the
grant as intended by Congress, it had,
by means of fraudulent surveys, and
doubtless by official corruption caus
ed at least one. hundred thousand
acres of its grant to be surveyed in
the very richest copper lands."
In the . same volume Prof. Myers
states that the St. Mary's Falls Canal
Company stole large areas of rich
copper deposits in similar fashion; a
fact which he gleans from official re
ports and particularly the disclosures
made in the suit of Chandler vs. Cal
umet and Hecla Mining Company (U.
S. Reports, Vol. 149, pp. 79-95).
This suit discloses the fact that the
mines of the Calumet and Hecla were
located on part of the identical at
leged swamp lands granted by Con
gress in 1852. The copper company,
as might be expected, won the suit
and it appears in the official report of
the case that "Mr. Justice Brown, be
ing interested in the result, did not sit
in this case and took no part in its
decision." Mr. Justice Brown was
appointed to the Supreme Court
from Michigan.
There "is abundant precedent for
reopening this f question of title to
these mineral lands by ttie bringing
of suits for the canceling of these old
patents and the restoration of these
mineral lands to the public domain.
The Department of Justice is now
prosecuting suits of this character j
against the Southern Pacific Rail
way involving. the title to very val
uable oil lands in California, which
were granted to the company with
an identical restriction excepting
mineral lands from the grant.
In the congressional investigation
of this matter which now appears
probable this question of underlying
land titles must necessarily be thor
oughly sifted.
o o
MAN MAY DIE OF PECULIAR
POISONING QUEER CASE
Jacob Chapman, a Wells-Fargo
Express Company driver, who may
die in terrible agony before the end
of another week, smoked a cigar at
the Iroquois Hospital today and joked
with physicians in consultation on
his case.
Chapman carried an express pack
age, partly opened, to thiTcity health
department Wednesday morning and
handed it to E. W. Sweeney, a clerk.
Sweeney opened the package andi
found it contained tissues of a cow's
lungs sent to the department for an-j
alysis. The analysis showed the.
presence of deadly anthrax germsT
and Sweeney was promptly vac-
cinated.
A search was made for Chapman.,
He had taken a day's vacation and
was not found until last night, when,
physicians say they discovered symp-
toms of virulent poisoning. An anti-,
toxin serum was injected into hist
blood early today. .
Washington. Amendment to,
Alaska railroad bill introduced pro-,
viding that $50,000,000 of proceeds,
from sale of public lands in West bej
used for construction of irrigation:,
system.
o o
Sophia (sentimentalIy)--I dearly
love to listen to the ticking of a clock.
It seems to be that a clock has a lan-
guage of its own. Mr. Smart Yes0
Sophia, the clock has a language t
you might say a dial-ect. 3